On the Records: A Data Challenge for Texas
What are state and local governments in Texas doing to make raw data available to the public? Not much. Full Story
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![Sites like D.C. Bikes and Stumble Safely present government data with innovative applications.]()
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On the Records: Adventures in Public Information
Most agencies release their data with little hassle. Not the Dallas Area Rapid Transit agency. Full Story
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On the Records: Hutchison vs. White Money
With some notable exceptions, few political donors cut checks to both candidates. Full Story
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![Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Houston mayor Bill White.]()
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On the Records: Mack Brown vs. Mike Sherman
We've added Texas A&M to our payroll database, so now you can compare both coaches' salaries. Let's hope next week's game isn't so lopsided. Full Story
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On the Records: Tracking Unemployment
Analyzing unemployment in Texas: What would Google do? Full Story
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![The percent of the labor force that is unemployed: 1990-2009.]()
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On the Records: Your Turn to Make Word Clouds
An easy guide to visualizing tweets. Full Story
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![A view of the GOP governor's race from Twitter.]()
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Behind Closed Doors
Should the Texas Forensic Science Commission meet in private? The new chairman, John Bradley, says there's a good argument for it. Full Story
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The Public Payroll
Our searchable database of public employees' pay — now featuring data from universities and eight of the state's largest cities. Full Story
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![The payroll database contains more than $250,000 public employees' salaries.]()
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On the Records: Campaign-Finance FAIL.
Numbers and text don't mix. Full Story
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![Bad, bad things happen when you mix text fields with number fields.]()
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Off The Books, Part Two: Contractor Conflicts
State contractors – many of whom get paid top dollar to advise Texas agencies – are largely immune from reporting conflicts of interest. Full Story
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Off The Books, Part One: High-Price High-Tech
State agencies are spending tens of millions of dollars every year on information technology contract workers, employees who aren’t on the state payroll – but whose pay often dwarfs those who are. Full Story
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Forensic Science Chairmen Face Off
John Bradley, the Williamson County District Attorney and the newly-appointed chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, spent his morning answering a steady stream of questions from Texas lawmakers. At issue, if and when his panel will re-open the investigation into whether faulty science led to the arson conviction of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed by the state in 2004. Full Story
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On the Records: Ethics Fines Now Searchable
In keeping with our goal of making government data more accessible, we've created a simple application for searching fines issued by the Texas Ethics Commission. Full Story
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On the Records: Dealing with FEC data
Long story short: It's a nightmare. Full Story
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![FEC data has strange characters representing negative numbers.]()
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On the Records: A Data Manifesto
We've created "On the Records" to help you explore these databases and records — and the visualizations, mashups and stories that use them. Full Story
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State technology chief resigns
The executive director of the state's data and information technology agency stepped down last month. Brian Rawson, who spent the last three years overseeing the state's data consolidation and telecommunications efforts for the Department of Information Resources, will run "statewide data initiatives" for the Texas Education Agency. Full Story
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![Perry shakes hands after a speech in the Texas House.]()
Credit: Ross Ramsey